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Pope urges inclusion for gays, while locals distinguish between thought and deed

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Pope Francis speaks during a news conference aboard the papal flight on its way back from Brazil, Monday. Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Francis asked. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten. Francis' remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil.
(Associated Press)

The media is buzzing with speculation that Pope Francis is taking the Roman Catholic Church in a more liberal direction regarding homosexuals, but Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and a canon law expert from Staten Island maintain that the pontiff is merely restating a fundamental belief.

Controversy arose when the pontiff held a news conference with reporters on an airplane heading back to Rome from World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The official Vatican version had the pope making his remarks in the context of addressing rumors of a "gay lobby" within the Vatican.

"Pope Francis said there are many saintly people working in the Curia but also those who are not so saintly and cause scandals which harm the church," the Vatican said. "Quoting from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he [the pope] said that people with homosexual tendencies must not be excluded but should be integrated into society.

" 'If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?'" the Vatican quoted the pope as asking.

DIFFERENT ATTITUDE

Pope Francis' attitude is vastly different from that of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who signed a document in 2005 stating that men who had deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.

On Tuesday's the CBS This Morning show, Cardinal Dolan said that Pope Francis was "articulating well in a beautifully tender way the traditional teaching of the church, that while certain acts may be wrong, we would always love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity"

He said that it's not possible for Pope Francis or any pope to change the church's teachings that "homosexuality is not a sin...homosexual acts are," Cardinal Dolan said.

"A pope inherits certain revelation and it's his job to guard that and pass that on," Cardinal Dolan explained. "We inherit that that from God's revelation in the Bible, in natural law, so he couldn't change that if he wanted to.

"Pope Francis would be the first to say..my job isn't to change church teaching, my job is to present it as clearly as possible," Cardinal Dolan said, adding, though, that the pope's statements "could be change in tone or emphasis."

The Rev. Michael Martine, an expert in canon law who in August will become the pastor of Holy Rosary R.C. Church in South Beach, said the teaching on both homosexual activity and same-sex marriage cannot be changed because they stem from what the church regards as natural, rather than manmade, laws.

"The Pope clearly mentions only homosexual tendencies in his statement," said Father Martine. "Homosexual tendencies in and of themselves are not sinful. Homosexual activity is."

According to the Catechism, people with homosexual tendencies "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided," Father Martine said.

"In his papacy, Pope Francis has been a wonderful example of the compassion of Christ to all people, and he will certainly continue to be such by reaching out to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter what their faith, race, sexual orientation and economic status in society," Father Martine added.

Gay leaders were buoyed by Francis' nonjudgmental approach, saying changing the tone was progress in itself, although for some, the encouragement was tempered by his talk of gay clergy's "sins."

"Basically, I'm overjoyed at the news," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the U.S.-based New Ways Ministry, a group promoting justice and reconciliation for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people and the wider church community.

"For decades now, we've had nothing but negative comments about gay and lesbian people coming from the Vatican," DeBernardo said in a telephone interview from Maryland.

GAY RIGHTS GROUP

The largest U.S. gay rights group, Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that the pope's remarks "reflect a hopeful change in tone."

Still, said Chad Griffin, the HRC president, as long as gay individuals, couples and youth alike "are told in churches big and small that their lives and their families are disordered and sinful because of how they were born -- how God made them -- then the church is sending a deeply harmful message."

The pope didn't dodge any questions during the news conference and even thanked a journalist who raised allegations contained in an Italian news magazine that one of his trusted monsignors was involved in a gay tryst. Pope Francis said he investigated the allegations according to canon law and found nothing to back them up.

He took journalists to task for reporting on the matter, saying the allegations concerned matters of sin, not crimes like sexually abusing children. And when someone sins and confesses, he said, God not only forgives -- but forgets.

Francis was also asked about reports suggesting that a group of gay clergymen exert undue influence on Vatican policy. Italian news media reported this year that the allegations of what they call the "gay lobby" contributed to Benedict's decision to resign.

The term "gay lobby" is bandied about with abandon in the Italian media, and is decidedly vague. Interpretations of what it means have ranged from the benign concept of a group of celibate gay priests who are friends, to a suggestion that a group of sexually active gay priests use blackmail to exert influence on Vatican decision-making.

Stressing that Catholic social teaching calls for homosexuals to be treated with dignity and not marginalized, Francis said he would not condone anyone using private information for blackmail or to exert pressure.

"A lot is written about this 'gay' lobby. I still haven't found anyone at the Vatican who has 'gay' on his business card," Francis said, chuckling. "You have to distinguish between the fact that someone is gay and the fact of being in a 'lobby.'"

Pope Francis certainly showed a human touch during his trip to Rio, charming the masses at World Youth Day with his decision to forgo typical Vatican security so he could to get close to his flock. Francis traveled without the bulletproof popemobile, using instead a simple Fiat or open-sided car.

"There wasn't a single incident in all of Rio de Janeiro in all of these days and all of this spontaneity," Francis said, responding to concerns raised after his car was swarmed by an adoring mob when it took a wrong turn.

"I could be with the people, embrace them and greet them -- without an armored car and instead with the security of trusting the people," he said.

Pope Francis spoke lovingly of his predecessor, saying that having him living in the Vatican "is like having a grandfather, a wise grandfather, living at home." He said he regularly asks Benedict for advice, but dismissed suggestions that the German former pontiff is exerting any influence on his papacy. On the contrary, Pope Francis said, he has tried to encourage Benedict to participate more in public functions at the Vatican and receive guests, but that he is "a man of prudence."

NEW ROLES

In one of his most important speeches delivered in Rio, Pope Francis described the church in feminine terms, saying it would be "sterile" without women. Asked what he foresees, he said the church must develop a more profound role for women in the church, though he said "the door is closed" to ordaining women to the priesthood.

The pontiff had harsh words for Monsignor Nunzio Scarano. The Vatican accountant has been jailed on accusations that he plotted to smuggle $26 million from Switzerland to Italy and is also accused by Italian prosecutors of using his Vatican bank account to launder money.

Pope Francis said while "there are saints" in the Vatican bureaucracy, Scarano isn't among them. The Vatican bank has been a focus of Francis' reform efforts, and he has named a commission to look into its activities amid accusations from Italian prosecutors that it has been used as an offshore tax haven to launder money.

Asked if closing the bank is a possibility, Francis said: "I don't know how this story will end."